Finalist 2010

05 March 2010

Geddit down yeh!

A big big thanks to SirRon, host of this month's Session with the brilliant topic of The Display Shelf. See, I was captivated by the beauty of Fraoch 20th Anniversary Ale when I first saw it recently. Never mind that ordinary Fraoch is one of my favourite beers, never mind the vital statistics (11% ABV; aged in ex-speyside sherry casks; limited edition of 7,500 bottles): the sheer class of the champagne stylings of the bottle made me intensely aware that this is a special beer for a very special occasion. It's quite possible that if it weren't for today's Session I'd never have got round to opening it. Instead, I decided this is the perfect opportunity to throw hoarding to the wind and just drink the fecker.

It's a dark and faintly cloudy amber colour and quite viscous, with just a dusting of froth which leaves a stiff lacing down the glass. The vanilla wood is present on the nose, but in quite a pleasant and subtle way, and there's also an enticing herbal complexity underneath. And of course there's no ambiguity that this is a big big beer. On tasting, the texture is striking -- thickly mouth-coating but with a gently enlivening sparkle. First in the flavour queue is that sour woodiness then a sweet honey complication. Amazingly, the fruit of twice-removed sherry still haunts the beer, and that heady malt from the scotch is in the mix as well. Just dusting the top there's a sweet and aromatic herbal flavour, deriving from the heather I assume, but carrying notes of red summer berries too. The finish on all of this is quite dry, leaving a strawberry and vanilla echo behind.

Fraoch 20th Anniversary is a gorgeous beer, and definitely one to have on hand for a special occasion. But there's absolutely no harm in cracking it open just because you want to. So should it be for every beer really.

In fact, in addition to our monthly Session, I think it would be worth the beer blogosphere designating one day a year as Stash Day: an occasion which acts as its own excuse to pour something special from your collection and tell everyone about it.

14 comments:

I like the idea of 'stash day' - I am always guilty of hoarding! Sometimes it works out well, like I had some beers recently that had been unintentionally kept for about 2 years each, and they were really fantastic (one being a BrewDog Storm IPA (whisky-cask aged IPA), and it did feel like holding on to them for a while had led to them maturing a bit.

tania_nexust

But on the other hand, it's frustrating when I see other good beers at festivals & the like and I know I shouldn't buy more until I've made some room for them, so I'm trying to break my 'hoarder mentatlity' and drink up the good beers.

Old habits die hard though, and some beers are sufficiently rare or special enough that I do want to hold on to them for a sense of occasion - so if that occasion was an appointed Stash Day, it may just help me to get over it and drink them :-)

That sounds bloody lovely. The bottle in the cupboard gets ever more tempting!

I've been planning a day like that for a while now, just been trying to get a logo sorted... I had it named 'Open It!' but Stash Day works just as well. There's a wine equivalent once a year to do the same thing.

I don't stash a lot of beers and the ones I do age tend to by my own creations. I have a few bottles I want to open now, but I feel it would be a waste to open them on my own. I want to share the beer and talk shite about it with people who also enjoy that sort of thing. That's half the fun. We should arrange a communal stash beer opening. I'll bring some cheese.

A very wise approach (and not just because of the cheese). I like to think that the beer blogosphere works as a virtual social tasting event, where people can share their experiences of the same beer. That's the main reason I don't blog about non-commercial beers: they not so easy to socialise over online.

I also enjoy writing about beer as well as drinking it, so having a quiet half-hour with a beer and an empty text window is its own sort of pleasure.

I don't stash on purpose, but as I tend to go on beer shopping sprees, it just happens naturally. Unfortunately, a lot of German pilsners get "stashed" past their best before date before I notice them lurking at the back of a shelf. Too many other interesting distractions, I guess :)

But yeah, there are some bottles brought back from the US or Brussels/Amsterdam that i keep thinking I'll keep for an occasion. A Hallmark Stash Day might be just such an occasion!